Wednesday, August 10, 2005

More Rot From Denmark...

And this time its not their imperial pretensions in the Nares Strait. Under the headline, Something Rotten in Denmark, Adbusters reports that, "Danish authorities have used a new law which was supposed to be an anti-terrorism measure to convict Greenpeace for actions committed by its individual members."

Denmark was one of the many western countries that enacted post-911 legislation to deal with terrorist attacks. Most, if not all of those countries, assured their citizenry that these new laws wouldn't be used for other purposes. Well it's been four years; who remembers which laws were enacted when?

Steen Bach, lawyer for Nordic Greenpeace, said that "we are appealing on the grounds that when the Justice Minister brought in the legislation, we were assured that it would not be applied to situations of protest and civil disobedience."

What ghastly crimes put those members of Nordic Greenpeace in the dock? Were they charged with killing innocent civilians, poisoning the water, stealing from orphans?

We were trying to bring attention to a hidden fact that Danish pigs are fed genetically engineered soy which is information 98% of the Danish population says it wants," said Hindsgaul. "Most major changes against unjust and unpopular laws in the last century have been achieved by these methods of civil disobedience. They are the mark of a free society."

Oh Denmark. First Hamlet, then Hans, and now this? I think we all expected a little better. Again we see three sides of the situation: the government, the people, and the terrorists. If governments continue to treat people like terrorists, they shouldn't be surprised when those people feel they need to start acting more like them.